Eggshells in the Garden: How to Save, Store, Use Organic Calcium

Eggshells in the Garden: Save The Shells!

There is no good point to tossing eggshells into the garbage. The landfill doesn’t need your valuable resources! Save those shells for your garden 🙂

We like the idea of the eggshells being “cooked” before use just in case there would be any “nasties” on the shells. In general I’m not extremely concerned about germs, bacteria or viruses… but sometimes I figure it’s better to err on the side of caution. Cooking the shells should kill all the offenders so that when we use the shells we aren’t risking illness by handling them.

The foil lined bread pan is great for storing shells in the oven.

Eggshells in the Garden: Store Them Well

Keep a container in the oven to store your eggshells. We started out with a glass bread pan lined with foil. Now we use an aluminum pie pan. The bread pan is better utilized for bread!

Every time you crack an egg give it a quick rinse then place it in the oven’s container. Remove the pan of shells when you bake. After baking, while the oven is off and cooling down, place the pan of eggshells back into the oven. The residual heat will be enough to kill bacteria, but not burn the shells.

Eggshells in the Garden: Grow Better Tomatoes!

Tomato plants love a little extra Calcium. Lucky for us egg shells are just that. By following the steps in this video you will have ample supply of fine Calcium powder to use in the garden.

Another use for the Calcium is for feeding right back to the chickens. They need the Calcium to continue healthy egg production. I’ve heard it said that too much Calcium can be as bad as not enough. To prevent getting too much in the diet of the chickens put the ground up shells in a separate feed container and let the chickens eat it as they need it.

For my chickens, I like to sprinkle the egg shells on cooked oatmeal with some plain yogurt added. They only get this treat a couple of times per month so I’m not worried too much about a Calcium over dose.

9 thoughts on “Eggshells in the Garden: How to Save, Store, Use Organic Calcium”

This is one of the best practices I’ve started for my garden. Another great use for the eggshell powder; I have an indoor worm bin and the worms thrive with eggshells. I sprinkle some in the bin every week, or once every couple of weeks, to keep the worms happy and to keep the bin healthy. The eggshells keep a great ph-level and that prevents infestations of other little critters like mites.

When growing up we had chickens and great fresh eggs…My dad crushed up eggshell and thew them in the chicken yard but he also had shell delivered for the chicken yard. Chickens peck on it and eat it …makes for stronger egg shells on the egg. …Also thanks for the heating in oven tip.

Thank you for this fascinating info & video.
(1) I want to bake-&-grind my eggshells, but would like to know if they are a ‘general’ supplement for all plants (and not only for tomatoes)?
(2) The text informs us to place the shells in the oven whenever it has been used for baking something. In the video you mentioned baking them at 180 degrees F (350 degrees C) ….. For 2 hours? Is that correct? That’s a long time!
(3) OK, so we mix the powdered shell with a bit of water to get rid of the carbon, right? Can we then add the Epson Salts to the mixture as well, for extra nutrients?
(4) Would you recommend this for all plants?
Looking forward to your reply.
Regards, Sonja

The ground eggshells are for plants that need extra calcium like Tomatoes and Peppers. The Magnesium in the Epsom Salts is to give a boost to the foliage of any plant. Use the Epsom salts sparingly. You do not want to build up too much in your soils. Bake the eggshells using the residual heat after baking your food. When the oven is off but still hot, place the eggshells in to use the heat while the oven is cooling down. I’m not sure what you mean by “getting rid of the carbon”. Mix the calcium in with your soil when you plant.